This research describes a comparison of target identification performance between targets in the longwave infrared, illuminated shortwave infrared and visible spectral bands. Increasing levels of Gaussian blur were applied to eight varying aspects of twelve targets in the longwave infrared, illuminated shortwave infrared and visible spectra. A double-blind experiment was conducted with the first group of observers trained to identify all the targets using longwave infrared imagery and the second group trained to identify all the targets using visible imagery. Results of the first group's visible identification scores and the second group's longwave identification scores were compared to their results for illuminated shortwave infrared identification scores. In both cases, the illuminated shortwave infrared identification scores fell below the untrained visible or longwave infrared counterpart.